


Commiseration

by Okmeamithinknow



Series: Random canon drabbles [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Brotp, F/M, Juvia/Gajeel Brotp, My favorite Brotp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 08:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7837615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okmeamithinknow/pseuds/Okmeamithinknow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“a little commiseration may be the most important thing you can offer”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Commiseration

Habits die hard, and so what started during their time back in Phantom continues well into their time in Fairy Tail.

It’s only natural that she find him out here, deep in the woods that would be the perfect hiding spot if his wayward father ever did show his ugly metallic face again. It’s where they come to train when both of them are in town and not off on jobs. The fact that they train together is never really a secret; they just never find a reason to tell anyone. No one really asks and so they don’t bother to explain themselves. Lily knows, of course, being near inseparable from the dragonslayer, and often he joins them, adding a different element that keeps them both on their toes.

The clearing is huge, which is good because the way the two of them go at it causes more destruction than Titania in a tantrum.

To him it’s the only way he can work off the aggression and the minor annoyances that come in guild life coupled with stress of being a double agent. He can go all out, not restrict his attacks like he has to any other time, tempering them like he does when he trains with a certain Solid Script Mage who’s caught his eye. Juvia’s Water Body and the fact that his iron can go right through her without killing her means that he doesn’t have to fear injuring his fellow guildmate.

Juvia, well she uses it to work towards regaining her status as S-class with the hopes that maybe, just maybe, it might impress a certain Ice Make Mage who insists on treating her with kid gloves, regardless of the fact that she was one of the Element Four and one of the strongest female mages in Phantom. She’s strong, she knows it and he knows it. She’d have to be to withstand Phantom’s version of the S-Class trials. The trials that make Fairy Tail’s trials look like a walk in the park. Weaker men trembled at the name Juvia Lockser, and the city of Oak Town knew better than to cross the tempestuous Water Mage on even her best of days.

“But does any of that matter now?!” she finds herself screeching, letting loose a Water Cyclone at Gajeel.

Only a last second shield of iron saves him from taking the blow straight to his face, and he staggers back. He doesn’t answer; he doesn’t have an answer for her, nothing that he could do to help her besides letting her vent, allow the wound to bleed both verbally and physically. So he helps her cope the best way he knows how. Through fists and yelling, until she finally breaks.

He hates this part; the part where the final wave of her attack subsides and she’s sobbing hopelessly in the middle of a washed out crater. Even though he knows it’s coming, that regardless of where it falls in the sequence of their sparing, there’s nothing, nothing, he can do to stop it.

The first time it happened, post-Phantom when they’re both trying to cope with the stress and rejection of joining Fairy Tail, he didn’t know what to do, what the right thing to do to help her was. She’d tried so hard, tried to fit in, tried to be a full fledged member, and while it wasn’t as bad for her as it was for him, the disconnect was still there.

So while she’s slumps on the ground, he does the only thing that comes to mind in the years they’ve been at this; he trudges through the mud that’s ankle deep in places and sticks to his combat boots like a second skin and sits next to the girl. He waits until she leans against his shoulder before putting an arm around her. It’s awkward; always has been awkward since the first time it happened and he supposes it always will be. Like always he wonders what his Phantom self would say to see him comforting his fellow guildmate, but then the Fairy Tail mantra has infected him so deeply that by this point, he finds himself not caring.

He offers -in a manner that she would call bumbling and sweet if it didn’t throughly embarrassing the gruff dragonslayer and earn her an extended training session later-to pummel the Ice Mage until he realizes the error of his ways. She gives him a watery chuckle as she wipes the last of her tears away and this time he rests his head on top of hers. She stiffens at the motion, such an uncharacteristic display of affection from the cantankerous slayer.

Juvia leans into the embrace, knowing that Gajeel’s offer of any sort of affection is rare and it’s a matter of time before he realizes the brotherly intimacy he’s showing and slips back into the role they both know he plays.

Maybe its Fairy Tail that’s softened him. Maybe it’s being in love with the solid script mage, because she knows it’s love, even if he won’t admit it or quite possibly hasn’t realized himself. Or maybe he just has a penchant for taking small blue haired mages under his wing without him realizing it.

Either way, she’ll take what she can get, and as the two sit in silence in the middle of the washed out clearing that’s basically now a swamp, she’s thankful that she’s broken through the dam he built around his heart.

Even if it’s just a tiny trickle


End file.
